"It will be a very trendy, very modern, futuristic form of racing", he says.

"We're not talking about appealing to the grey market with these cars. We're looking at the 15 year old today who will be tomorrow's car buyer".

This isn't the first time that motorsport has attempted to embrace environmentally-friendly technologies.

This year's Le Mans 24 hours was won by a diesel-electric hybrid, while Formula One cars have been using energy recovery systems for the past two years. Technically, that makes them hybrids too.

But the new series is certainly a radical venture. And in order to get around some of the limitations which affect even the most sophisticated electric cars, it has had to embrace some very radical ideas.

The batteries in the new cars are expected to run down relatively quickly. So when a driver comes into the pits, he won't just change his tyres.

He'll change the whole car - swapping it for a new, and fully charged machine.